Lots Of Pretty Things

Today, on the Feast of Annunciation, 

we celebrate Mother's Day in our country. 

It is also my nameday. 

Yay, good wishes and presents!

:: breathtakingly pretty angels ::

:: my very first Mimica :: 

:: a beautiful hand-made card ::

:: treasures for Mum from my boy & girl ::

:: spring is here, at long last! ::

Anxiously Waiting ...

... for St Nick, 

he's expected tonight!

My girl set the table 

& prepared a snack for the old boy. 

Let's hope he enjoys it :)

Ten, Oh My Goodness!

My little girl is turning ten today. 

Only yesterday she was a tiny little baby.

Now we have a young lady in our midst :)

Happy birthday, my darling!

Sweet Thirteen!

It's official, we have a teenager!

Love love love that boy :)

Ecce Ancilla Domini

One of my favourite holidays in the church year, 

the Feast of Annunciation. 

One of my favourite works of art by one of my favourite artists, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Source

We're celebrating Mother's Day in my country today.

And it's my nameday. 

Yay!!!

Taking It Easy

Now this is what I call a slow start into the new year. Nearly half of January has passed already and I'm on my second blog post! Well, it's been busy at our quarters in the last couple of weeks, what with my birthday celebrations and all ... And now I'm finally ready to embrace life at its usual pace :)

For a proper start, I'll make your mouth water with some of the Christmas & birthday goodies we made. As usual, I'm still not one for carrying my little camera around the house and taking photos of everything I do, so here's a very limited selection of our makings:

I always make shortbread for Christmas, following the above recipe. Always a success :)

Another batch was a chocolatey one - one half of the rice flour substituted by cocoa powder. Yummy!

The ones below are seriously the best biscuits ever. My little girl (with a brand new hair do) has been a busy bee :) And a great helper!

Next project and more help - I love making yummy treats with my girl!

The biscuits turned out absolutely gorgeous - and delicious. Looking forward to this year's Christmas :)

(P.S.: an Easter Bunny has hopped onto our plate of Christmas biscuits - no wonder, considering the weather!)

Advent Sunday, And Not The First One!

Some unplanned blogging absence due to certain health issues in the family - better now, thank you very much. I realise I'm a bit late for introducing our advent wreaths this year but hey, it's only the second Sunday in Advent :)

My little girl & I attended a wreath-making workshop on the Saturday before the first Sunday in Advent and made three lovely wreaths for our home (plus the fourth one for my Mum, forgot to take a picture, sorry).

The above wreath is my little girl's work - she's a pro, isn't she? The wreath lives in her & her brother's bedroom and we light a candle (two this week) every night when saying our prayers.

The second wreath is my creation, it lives in our dining room and we light the candles during lunchtime. Magic!

This one hangs on our sitting-room door to welcome the visitors in our home. Made by me :)

We bought a lovely wreath for our main entrance, handmade by a local craftsman - it's absolutely gorgeous, but as usual, the picture has yet to be taken ...

Stay tuned!

St Andrew

My boy is celebrating today. 

He has a powerful patron saint :)

All White (Almost)

A few more photos from my girl's big day: 

- she's willing to endure a lot for her looks, 

as she slept with her little head full of these :)

- dress & ballet flats from Next; 

all children wore matching tunics in church

- a slice of the yummy cake :)

For My Girl

As promised, the yummy cake I made for my daughter's celebration. It was a Sacher cake, made by the recipe from my friend R. Deeelicious :)

I also made a batch of vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing (and  the proverbial cherry on top...). These were lovely as well.

And my little girl got some really lovely presents!

Enjoy the weekend, 

our family are off 

to the cottage in the woods again!

Big Thing

A few weeks ago we had a big family celebration when my little girl received her First Holy Communion. We had all been prepared for a lovely sunny Sunday and were very much surprised with extremely low temperatures and a snow forecast (!) - the last weekend in May! I still went with my original idea and wore this pretty silk dress from Boden (clearance rack, it cost me thirty quid, yay!) and I luckily discovered that my Ness tweed blazer was a perfect match. Enjoy!

Outfit details:

- nude heels (oh so high!) - Asos

- nude tights - local store

- silk dress - Boden Special Edition (on sale!)

- belt - Topshop

- jacket - Ness

- clutch (vintage) - my Mum's

- angel earrings & bracelet!

The day turned out fine weather wise. 

Everything else was up to us, right? 

P. S.: I've yet to show you the yummy cake I made!

Easter Outfits

Easter Sunday.

  Very early in the morning, 

going to the Resurrection Mass:

Outfit details:

- boots - Bata

- tights - home closet

- dress (underneath) - Boden

- coat - Ness

- scarf - Etsy (AliceCaroline)

- hat - Seeberger

- Harris Tweed wristlet / clutch - BlackHouse Bags

- antique brooch on clutch - friend's gift

Easter Monday.

Later in the day :)

Outfit details:

- boots - Humanic

- tights - home closet

- coat - Boden

- scarf / collar - crafts shop in the capital

- hat - Seeberger

- wrist warmers - Etsy (helengraydesigns)

- suede clutch - local boutique

And that's it!

Easter Goodies

In the week after Easter I'm still allowing myself to post about our Easter weekend - first the yummy food! I made the traditional Simnel cake (not traditional in Slovenia, but traditional for me since it's a British tradition, ha! :) and two batches of Hot Cross Buns (another British tradition in my family...). My husband and my little girl did the egg-colouring business. Surprisingly, with all my love for crafting, I've never really enjoyed colouring Easter eggs. I'm glad my daughter is looking forward to it every year :)

Apart from these, we also had traditional ham baked in bread, grated horseradish and spring onions, and my M-i-L made the delicious traditional (Slovenian this time) walnut cake roll. We took the food to church for the blessing.

Obviously, most of the food has been eaten by now, but there might be one or two forgotten Hot Cross Buns in the tin, and plenty of the walnut cake roll left, should you fancy stopping by for a cuppa!